RIRN Organization
Department Colours and Insignia
The Rhydin Imperial Republican Navy or RIRA is the single largest martial organization in the history of the aquatic nation - hundreds of thousands of sailors, soldiers, pilots and officers make up the ranks of this organization, and the military is broken up in to four specific commands; Fleet, Legion, Intelligence and Science.
Ultimately, all of these departments fall under the control of the RIRA Naval Command; the one permanent military formation within the Hegemony. (Ocassionally, when circumstances demand it, the RIRA will requisition RIHA and RIHAS units who act as joint task forces. This is rare; as the vast majority of the RIRN's interests are at sea, and these other organizations will use their insignias and uniforms as necessary.)
The branch insignia worn by officers and enlisted men alike in the RIRN is typically denoted by colour; with all other considerations of design, chevrons, stars or other apparel remaining unchanged across the uniform. The department colours are as follows;
Light blue - Worn by Officers and NCOs of the Navy's Fleet Command; this typically denotes commanding officers and their staff aboard warships and extends to their immediate subordinates. This can sometimes include enlisted, although it is rare.
Red - The most common, this is worn by any fleet crew member with a technical qualification who serve in areas outside of command duties; including engineering, security, operations and any other aspect of a ship's hands-on operations. This includes EVA ground staff aboard carriers.
Gold - Worn by naval staff who serve on bases, ashore, or any command not aboard a ship or submarine. This will typically mean base personnel, and more importantly - high ranking members of RIRN Naval Command who do not actively serve in the fleet.
White - Worn by medical personnel of any branch, department or service, irrespective of rank or commission.
Grey - Worn by members of the RIRN Legionary. There is no distinction between the RIRN's various services, with personnel (officer or non-commissioned alike) all generally receiving the same training and disciplines. Legionary pilots wear the Navy's light blue insignia with a pair of rifles to denote their status as Legionary.
Subdued - This all-grey scheme eliminates the identification of department and service and is worn by members of any service who are participating in potentially high-risk operations that may involve direct-action with the enemy. It is a low-visibility system designed to allow for identification of rank.
Royal Blue - Worn by science technical staff who serve as part of the Hegemony Navy's R&D division. Rarely do they serve in combat units.
Black - Highly recognizable and very visible amongst the other departments, black insignias are worn by members of the RIRN Intelligence divisions - including the Office of Naval Intelligence, Section Three, Counter-Intelligence and Strategic Services.
The Enlisted
The Enlisted ranks of the RIRN make up the overwhelming majority of the various branches. Enlisted ranks carry out the most basic tasks in a military force; serving as basic soldiers and 'grunts' of the legionary, and tending to the menial but crucial tasks of labor and maintenance that keep warships operating in the Navy.
Enlisted sailors and legionnaires of differing pay grades are referred to as "Non-Commissioned Officers" (NCOs) and will usually be given charge of a significant number of inexperienced junior enlisted in any given discipline or department; taking charge in place of more highly valued officers.
NCOs begin to take on more advisory roles and positions to the officers themselves; usually having accumulated more experience in their long careers than the officers they call "Sir"; providing pivotal knowledge that can only come from seeing action first-hand in the field - something which the vast majority of Junior Officers lack.
(This usually leads to many junior officers, regardless of their 'seniority' to an enlisted being the butt-end of many jokes within the NCO ranks...)
The Warrants
Neither Enlisted nor Officer, Warrant Officers are effectively senior NCOs who are afforded the courtesies and privileges of commissioned officers. Warrant Officers are rare; usually being NCOs who have been appointed to a position usually held by a commissioned officer due to their technical expertise in a certain field; and NCOs who attain the rank of Chief Warrant Officer are then given a full commission, although by this time most Warrant Officers have been in the service for so long that they opt for retirement rather than commission.
The Officers
The commanders and leaders of the military: officers hold a great deal of responsibility - being charged with often hundreds, if not thousands of enlisted men under their command. Officers are commissioned after completing several years in military college - where they study disciplines not dissimilar to undergraduate university studies - and leave with a degree in any number of fields from medicine to engineering, command, business administration, or even quantum physics (if they were so inclined...) Given this, it is quite possible for a 22 year old Ensign who has studied at the RIRN's naval college for 4 years to be called "Sir" by a 50 or 60 year old non-commissioned officer, as all line-officers are superior in rank to any non-commissioned or warrant officer. This said, the wise junior officer should always heed the advice of these grizzled veterans; listening and learning from the men and women who have many years of experience under the belts.
Career officers who excel move on to more challenging positions; many attaining the rank of Captain to assume command of a Warship and its crew, or a battalion of soldiers should they be a legionary officer. Several 'special' ranks exist within the Naval heirarchy for officers who go above and beyond the calling of a normal commission... without being relegated to a desk command. These ranks - namely, Wing Commanders and Fleet Captains - are assigned multiple commands while still maintaining active control of their own squadron or vessel. These commissions are rare, and most officers at this level of their careers simply progress to the flag-ranks of Rear Admiral without getting such an opportunity.
The naval command - contrary to popular belief - is broken in to two very distinct services; the Fleet Command, and the Subfighter Command. While both services progress through the same ranks and serve in the same commands and environments, their independence gives both forces a great deal of flexibility - and Wing Commanders will often serve Carrier Captains as advisors on subfighter tactics and warfare - and while the ultimate decision of what the subfighter group of any carrier does is ultimately that of the Captain or Commanding Officer - the operation of this department is independant of the ship's normal operations under the direction of the Wing Commander, or senior squadron leader. It should be noted however that once officers attain the rank of Admiral, the difference between these two services becomes indiscernable; with these officers having the executive power to command any aspect of any part of the navy.
The Fleet Admiral is the highest ranked officer in the military; a rank that is reserved for times of war or crisis, and - if history is any indication - is appointed only once or twice every century.
RIRN Subfighter Command
The 1990s were a time of rapid development in submarine warfare; the the age of oceanic colonization saw the need for technologies that could take submarines faster, deeper and further than ever before. The second contact war with Renor Xukuth, much like the previous conflict the first contact war, did much to advance these technologies at a rapid pace. Soon, submarines that were capable of speed greater than 100 knots were common place, and the term "DSV" - Deep Submergence Vehicle - was expanded beyond small, deep-diving research submarines to encompass an entirely new class of military submarine.
In 1994, the RIRN signed its first ever high-speed submarine interceptor contract to develop the concept fighter that would spark the beginning of the age of the subfighters. There were two competing designs. The shark-inspired "Mako" concept was developed by RVC, was revolutionary for being the first manned submarine to utilize a drive mechanism that mimiced sea life; a tail. This design was considered to be a favourite, and had it won, the face of subfighter design as we know it may have evolved very differently. The Mako however did not win the contract, the RIRN instead choosing the more conventional "Tempest", designed by manufacturing giant HQLT, for its superior maneuverability and durability (and at considerably less cost due to its more conventional propulsion systems and armaments.)
Tempest was designated PFS-1: prototype fighter submarine one, and underwent extensive development over the next three years under the direction of HQLT's "Aqua Dynamics" Research & Design Complex. This would eventually culminate in the RIRN's first front-line submarine fighter, the SA-3/A Tempest, in 1996. During these early years of development, the RIRN expanded its Naval Academies and trained several classes of test pilots. These test pilots effectively became the first members of the RIRN Subfighter Wings in 1998 when the Tempest entered service to the fleet, although they were considered 'specialists' and still operated as part of the fleet command.
Over the next few years, other companies offered their own entrants in to this new arena. Even in the early days trailing the HQLT every step of the way by just a few months, and closely learning from the development of the Tempest, Hegemony Armaments built its first SA-4/A Nota'Man class subfighter and was introduced to the RIRN subfleets. By just 1998, there were already over a dozen classes of subfighters. Despite this, it was the Tempest, and its counterpart, the Nota'Man, which dominated both contracts and production.
It is a fair enough observation to say that the development of the subfighter contributed heavily to the rapid decline of the surface navy. A small, unbelievably fast, well armed and single-manned subfighter rendered the known and developed defenses of the surface fleet obsolete.
Anti-ship torpedoes and ASROC missiles, developed with the express purpose of destroying slow moving attack submarines were completely unable to defend against this new form of attack, and as the world of the submarine continued to offer new and increasingly innovative ways of waging war, the surface fleet struggled to keep up.
By 2009, the concept of a Hegemony surface-based Anti Submarine Warfare had all but completely vanished, and the thousands of sub-surface colonies around the realm would now have to depend on the continued development of the submarine to defend them.